Rosie's Blog

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Call for Submissions - Purrcasso 2010

I finally finished the poster, and Bill Robinson put the text in the middle. I put a lot of time and love into this piece, with the hope of inspiring artists to submit this year, and inspiring the general public to come to the auction. This is the fifth, and final year that the art auction will take place, so please submit whatever you can, be it a sketch, painting, or crafted piece (i.e. ceramics). I submitted a painting last year that sold for $200, and all the proceeds of the art sold went to the Berkeley Humane Society. In past years, many amazing artists have submitted beautiful pieces, some of which you can view online at the Purrcasso gallery and blog.

The Berkeley Humane Society saves over 800 animals' lives each year, and this year an unfortunate tragedy happened. In May 2010, the shelter had a fire, and at least a dozen animals perished, with many more left homeless. They have received much support from the community since then, but they are still recovering and in need of help.

In the larger scope, around four million cats and dogs—about one every eight seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of family pets who are not spayed or neutered. Because shelters lack infinite space, money and time to care for strays, they are forced to euthanize unwanted animals. I advocate doing whatever you can to alleviate this issue, whether it be adopting shelter animals instead of buying pure breeds, spaying/neutering your pet, or donating to your local shelter.